WHAT CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS ARE COMING HEADING INTO 2024?

Blink and you’ll miss it.

It was only yesterday that we were counting down the seconds heading into 2023, and even if you were to focus solely on the technological developments in Artificial Intelligence alone, a lot has happened in 2023.

So, keeping up with the pace of things, let’s take a look at some of the content reaction trends that we as a creative content agency, and you, as a brand or marketer need to stay on top of heading into 2024:

Digital Storytelling

TREND 1: IMMERSIVE DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Immersive digital storytelling involves tailored viewing experiences, using technology and platforms as a stepping stone for the viewer to personalise their experience. Within this category, we are all at least loosely familiar with the concept of Augmented/Virtual Reality, but what new developments in this space should we be keeping our eye on heading into 2024?

  • Hyper-personalised and interacting social media advertising:

    As our ability to hone in on our key audience based on more behaviours than ever, social media platforms are offering more tailored solutions for those demographics. Over the coming years, we will be seeing a massive boom in immersive and interactive storytelling when it comes to how we can tailor the marketed experience of a brand. Keep your eyes peeled for new personalisation features across platforms, and try to work this into your content generation plans.

  • Websites and landing pages as stories:

    Interactive landing pages and websites are a great way to offer a unique experience for your audience once they jump platform and join you on your brand’s hub. And given the strengths in web design and development – both in terms of visual design and interactivity – are only getting stronger and more accessible, it’s worth thinking about what story experience you can offer your audience, on a platform that the brand has full control over. Then it’s just about using other platforms to drive the traffic there. You can see some great examples of award-winning interactive storytelling websites here for inspiration.

TREND 2: CUSTOM ANIMATION OVER HIGH-END CINEMATOGRAPHY

When it comes to establishing a brand as trusted and capable, any marketer knows to avoid seeming like a copy-paste organisation. By this, we mean a business that could have been set up and branded from a template (I.e. using a WIX or Squarespace website, making content from stock photography or footage, etc.). The thing is, once upon a time it was easier to tell what was custom, and what came from a template…

But unfortunately, and fortunately, the quality of stock footage, photography and templates being made available to everyday consumer is increasing drastically. To the point that it’s now possible to make stock seem, well, less stockish. And templates, less template-ish.

Cast your mind back a few years. You might recall the kinds of advertising and video production that global organisations proudly spent millions on. Global campaigns which captured many cinematic settings, set in a montage with voiceover. This was how a trusted brand with substantial marketing spend put their stamp of authority on their brand image. Nowadays, anyone can piece together a cinematic global-looking brand film by purchasing very affordable stock and low-balling a voiceover artist via Fiverr. Unfortunately, for those who try this one on for size, audiences are super savvy, and spot the new version of this “template” a mile away.

So how are brand combatting this? Custom art, illustration and animation styles in their branding.

Take this example of a project we worked on for client ‘MyConnect’ for example. In working closely with the client, we were able to build a custom character and universe in their desired colour palette, in a way that would be difficult for anyone to template-ise. And in a broader branding sense, here are some brands using illustrative styles well to enhance that custom brand feel.

So if you’re working on content for an authoritative brand, it might be worth questioning those concepts that are cinematic and montage-driven. Because if it looks like it could be stock footage (and that by no means is a reflection of cinematic quality), then either the concept needs to be further customised… or why not give custom animated video a go?!

TREND 3: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-LED STORYTELLING

And finally, it’s no surprise that Artificial Intelligence will play a very heavy role in our visual storytelling heading into 2024. Already moving at the speed of light, AI is learning faster than we can regulate, and it’s capabilities are growing exponentially with each passing day. 

So, without delving into the neverending spectrum and capabilities of AI, we’ve summarised a few key points around AI as we currently understand the trends and projections. And remember, AI is here to stay. It’s best to work alongside it, than to fear it, so dive in and start playing today! 

  • Concept Art:

    Why not use AI to trial the generation of imagery to support concepts at the ideation stage. The great thing about concept art generated by AI is that, even when it doesn’t get it quite right, it could spark other ideas like a brainstorming partner.

  • Artificially Intelligent Video:

    While video and content production agencies aren’t quite yet seeing a seamless experience with the generation of video content yet, there are AI-based supporting

  • Scripting & Research:

    Thought search engines were useful when they came out? Well, now you can use text-based artificial intelligence to compile your findings, write articles to a specific word count, and in a specific tone. The level of creativity that AI has when it comes to scripting still leaves a little to be desired, but this will likely improve tenfold over the next 12 to 24 months. 

Again, when it comes to AI, start playing now and don’t get left behind! We can’t uninvent something, or put the genie back in the bottle, so get excited by the possibilities and integrate with AI to make your job and life easier today.